This application relates to a cooling air ram that cools both working air for an air conditioning system, and also cools a liquid heat sink for cooling power electronics associated with an electric motor.
Aircraft air conditioning systems include a number of components. In a typical air conditioning system, a fan moves air to provide the heat sink for ground operation. The air passes through heat exchangers that are placed in a path of cooling air flow drawn by the fan. Thus, the fan draws air over a plurality of heat exchangers to cool the air being delivered to the several components.
More recently, high-powered electric motors are being used to drive various devices such as compressors and pumps for aircraft air conditioning systems. Power electronics controllers guide high current/voltage electrical power to an electric motor. These power electronics controls become quite hot during operation, and thus cooling is necessary. In general, to provide a separate cooling circuit for the power electronics would be undesirable.